20 Miles to Get To My Couch

What is the best part of the last 20 mile training run before taper time until marathon day? Laying clothes out the night before? The morning bowl of oatmeal? Pulling on a pair of gloves AND mittens to match the two layers and a jacket? Gotta be the two vanilla Gu energy gel packs during the run, right? Ahhh, yummy, but no. And actually not that yummy, in fact very cold and kind of stiff in texture. It must be the friends who run with you? Well, yes they are a HUGE plus! I love my running buds and we pushed our long run pace a bit for 12 miles of the total distance. Two of my fellow runners decided at the last minute to run the full 20 with me, saving me from running the final 4 miles alone. That was pretty fantastic, I must admit. A gigantic thank you to them! Maybe it was the snow flurries that fell consistently on us for all 20 miles, at times pelting our eyeballs. It certainly wasn't the roads that were snow covered, that familiar sandlike surface greeting us yet again. (Actually we had a decent amount of clear pavement, so it all equaled out.) Give up? My title does give it away after all. The best part was the end when I got to meet up with my couch and the TV. What can I say? Inside I guess I'm just a couch potato with a running habit. Before landing on the couch with some delicious coffee, I did manage to fold laundry and throw some chicken into the crock pot (which is becoming "Crock Pot Taco Chicken" -recipe from a friend, yum!). And I had a post-run bowl of cereal for recovery. OKAY, also a couple of chocolate chip cookies immediately following the run, thanks to another runner baking them for us! It was a great morning! I can't stand to spend my Saturday mornings any other way than completing a long run and truly "earning" my weekend.







Okay, so this picture isn't from today, but it is me on the couch, actually the recliner, but you get the idea. :)